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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Marlin Jackson saw new Detroit Lions coach Jim Caldwell up close in Indianapolis, and he thinks Caldwell might be just what the team needs.

“One thing that Jim Caldwell will not go for is distractions,” said Jackson, the former Michigan defensive back who played for Caldwell’s Colts in 2005-09, on WTKA-AM (1050)’s “Michigan Insider” show this morning. “He does not want anybody ... operating outside the frame of the team, being a ‘me’ guy, being selfish in their actions and their feelings about playing. That’s one of the things I feel may have an impact on the Lions. Your best players may not have been as mature as they need to be to be leaders as they should be. I feel he will not stand for those type of things, and he will bring out the best in guys who may not have the staying power or the finishing power to go through the season.

“Coach (Tony) Dungy said, ‘Never get too high, never get too low, just continue to ride the wave and stay even as you go through the season.’ (Caldwell) will get his team to stay focused on those things.”

Caldwell was the quarterbacks coach and assistant head coach for Jackson’s first four years with the Colts and then the head coach in 2009, when he led the Colts to the Super Bowl.

Jackson knows the Lions are getting a talented offensive coach.

“In a quarterback-driven league, you definitely want to have a coach who knows how to develop quarterbacks,” Jackson said. “Obviously, from his resume, being a guy that’s worked with Peyton Manning through the majority of his career, helping him reach the level he’s reached, and the job he did with Joe Flacco and that Baltimore Ravens offense as offensive coordinator ... .

“Then by his leadership style. He was a very laid-back coach; at the same time, very direct. He took over a veteran-laden team and he still was able to make the necessary changes. Before that, we were in a cover-2 defense, and he changed it up and brought in a defensive coordinator that was more of a zone-blitz type of scheme.

“He’s also a guy that is well-respected around the NFL and in the locker room. When he took over my team, that was coach Tony Dungy’s team; we went to the Super Bowl that first year. Some people can say that’s because of Tony Dungy ... but I don’t believe that’s so. I think that’s just him as a leader recognizing the talent and type of team he had mentally and that maturity. Realizing, ‘I don’t need to change too much, I don’t need to rock the boat, I just need to lead this team,’ he did a great job doing that. Everybody respected him coming into the job, due to the fact that we had worked with him already and knew what he was all about.”

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Jackson also touched on a few other topics during the interview:

■ On whether Caldwell will arrive and anoint leaders immediately: “I don’t think he will do it right off the bat. Maybe with the quarterback, because the quarterback has to be a leader, and he knows that. But with other guys this off-season, may sit down and have conversations with guys, in OTAs, see who’s stepping up and, closer to the season, much like Lloyd (Carr), pull those guys to the forefront, guys who can be leaders on his team. I think he’d want guys to show you what they’re all about instead of coming in immediately and giving them the keys to the car.”

■ On expected new Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who recruited him to U-M out of their shared hometown of Sharon, Pa., and coached him at U-M in 2001-02:

“First of all, as a DC, you want a guy who knows his X’s and O’s very well and knows the opposing offensive schemes and things of that nature. TA knows all of those things. He is a great X’s and O’s coach and brings out the best in his players by challenging them. That’s one thing I remember about him: challenging me to be a better player at the University of Michigan when he felt I may have been slacking off or I was not playing at the level that I needed to. So he would call me in and sit me down and, man to man, let me know, ‘You need to step it up, we expect more out of you.’

That accountability factor is something he will bring as a DC, telling you what you need. He has been a great coach all through the league and even as a coordinator on the collegiate ranks at Florida and did a great job for the one year he was there, so I think he definitely knows his X’s and O’s, knows his schemes but also will hold players accountable.”